Category Archives: Politics And Current Affairs

Tennis Shoes by New Balance

 
New Balance is one of the more established shoe companies in the world that has been well known about making great tennis shoes.

While Nike and other major shoe manufactures have been taking their manufacturing operations overseas to places like China, India or Indonesia, New Balance has been taking a whole other approach. See, even if your product relies on low cost labor to stay profitable, there is a way to approach the problem form another angle and achieve the same goals in terms of cost of manufacturing. The reason is that the problem isn’t about low cost labor, but it is about the age old thing of keeping costs low to make more money. The same goal can be achieved to by building a business model around automation, which New Balance has done very well. This way they get to keep manufacturing costs low and stay competitive and the related jobs in the country. As far as I am concerned, they are modern-day American heroes that is especially neat considering the corporate scandals the newspapers seem to be constantly be filled with.

New Balance Tennis Shoes

But keeping costs low while making such sought after products such as men’s tennis shoes through automation is no small feat, because it is not without risk. See, when Nike and the like decide that they want to cut production back, all they have to do is to close a plant in China (with very little regard to what effect that might have on the people there, I might add). If you have just invested several million dollars into a state-of-the-art manufacturing line up front, you cannot afford to cut production back, not to mention that you had to spend the money ahead of time. It is indeed very risky.

The great thing is that most sporting goods lend themselves to be made this way such as babolat rackets, but I could have named any other items.

Posted 18 February 2008 † korneld § ‡ Comments (0) °

Better Care Homes Are Needed for the Elderly

 
Modern medicine is improving and allowing people to live longer. This has increased the number of people who need care at the dusk of their lives. Baby boomers are a huge generation in terms of their numbers. My father is one of them, and I am not looking forward to the time when we will have to make the decision which way to go. He is a cool guy, though. He wants to hear nothing about his kids taking care of him when he is not able to do it himself. He wants to go into a home.

Owners of senior care homes are at the beginning of a major boom that may be the biggest since fast food. Senior and adult care taker franchise opportunities can be can be called many different things including adult day care business opportunities when they conduct adult day care for mentally or physically handicapped adults, and those who are at the very end of their lives but want to be at home but also require care.

Pretty much all adult day care businesses can be home based franchising opportunities because most of the care taking can be done from home.

One thing that will be of a major concern to me and to my brothers when the time comes to put the parents into the care of others that they are trustworthy, reliable and just all around good people. You just hear too many ugly stories about heartless people who abuse the elderly.

Posted 08 February 2008 † korneld § ‡ Comments (0) °

Political Campaigns Help Spawn New Businesses

 
We have all heard it before that an election season is usually good business for the media. Newspapers, television and radio bring in record profits during a time when politicians are willing to move heaven and earth (or willing to pay somebody to do it for them) to get the votes necessary to win. They promote Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton as well as John McCain and Mitt Romney. Political affiliation sometimes does matter. I can’t picture Fox News promote any of the Democrats, but they will mention them, and you know what they say: any publicity is good publicity.

However, there are a few organization out there that make impartiality their business. I came across one of them recently called PromoteYourVote.com. They have a lot of politics related news and the sort on their website, but the core of their business is selling promotional items such as t-shirts, pens and the like to campaigns that are eager to get the word out about their respective candidates. But instead trying to sell to the candidates’ organizations themselves, they are giving the general public a chance to let the world know which candidate they like. In a way, they are helping to take “grass root” efforts go to the next level.

I know that it’s just business, but in today’s divided atmosphere it is certainly feels like a breath of fresh air to see somebody not care about ideology and and taking sides. Not just that, but it seems like it is good business. I kinda wish I had though of it.

Posted 28 January 2008 † korneld § ‡ Comments (0) °

Work Like A Mexican - Thoughts About Illegal Immigration

 
There have been a great deal of debate about illegal immigration recently. Local law enforcement was authorized to enforce federal immigration laws that lead to crackdowns on employers who hired illegal immigrants. It left the illegals in a paranoid frenzy and businesses and farmers without the work force that they have been relying on for decades. Some of them decided to stop doing business all together. Right now, I am not going to debate the pros and cons of legislation dealing with illegal immigration. I am going to be sharing some of the things I have learned about Mexican migrant workers in recent weeks with you, and all the things that we could learn from them that could benefit America as a whole.

I friend if mine is a farmer. In the fall he sells pumpkins for Halloween decoration and builds a corn and straw maze for the kids to play in. While he grows his own pumpkins on his land, the great state of Colorado is not the best place to do this. He buys most of what he sells form Mid-Western states. As I understand it, the pumpkins are shipped to a wholesaler to centralized locations, then distributed to places like supermarkets and farm stands like my friend’s. The wholesalers use migrant workers from Mexico to load and unload the produce.

I have had the privilege to work with these illegal immigrants as I helped out my friend from time to time. A couple of trucks filled with pumpkins would arrive and they would have to be unloaded. Now, I am a hard working man myself which includes hard, manual labor if it is necessary. I am an immigrant myself (a legal one at that), and ever since I arrived in the United States, my work ethics provided me with a competitive edge in the work place. I am not saying that natural born Americans are lazy. Far from it. But the truth is that immigrants, when exposed to the land of opportunity that America is, can run major circles around the natural born population when it comes to doing good work for long periods of time. As it turned out, though, I didn’t even come close to the speed and efficiency of those Mexicans who handled those pumpkins. They worked with lighting speeds and great efficiency. I couldn’t believe my eyes, especially knowing that they have done several of those truck loads already that day. I managed to keep up with them, but it was a real strain for me.

Now I understand why farmers and businesses in general like to hire these people. Obviously, it is a lot cheaper to hire these guys, but on top of everything they go well above and beyond of what we expect out of the work force in this country. Businesses would be crazy not to hire these guys. It just makes good fiscal sense. As for the rest of us living and working in the U.S., I believe we have a lot to learn from these illegal immigrants in terms of work ethics.

Posted 11 November 2007 † korneld § ‡ Comments (0) °

I’m Not A Racist, I Just Don’t Like You

I am a Caucasian male. I am also sick and tired of being called a racist when I am critical of black people, a sexist when I have a less than positive comment about women and antisemitic when I voice my disagreement about how Israel has been conducting its business. Racism and other form of discrimination are a huge problem not only in America, but also around the world. Another huge problem is that people use race and sex to choke off the voice of their critics. It is not only wrong (about as wrong as discrimination itself), but also instrumental in the perpetuation of discrimination.

Let me explain what I mean. I have never had anything against black people until I moved to Las Vegas. The reason being that I didn’t know a lot of African Americans (I lived in Iowa. Need I say more?). I went to school with a bunch of kids from Africa, and by and large they were good people. However, that changed when I moved to Las Vegas and landed a job as a valet attendant. On hip hop night, I only had a fraction of the money in my pocket from tips as I would have on any other night. It’s no secret that black people aren’t big on tipping. That made me mad a lot of times. It wasn’t that they just didn’t have money. If you don’t have money, don’t take advantage of a service where it is customary to tip. Self park. It’s as easy as that. But most often than not, they seemed to have gotten a kick out of stiffing me. I am not a racist, I just hate being taken advantage off.

Now, let’s talk about women. I am sick and tired that, for instance, guys have to put up with your emotional swings not just at home, but even at the work place, because if they don’t they are labelled a sexist pig. Ever since the sixties when the the emancipation movement took off, women have been silencing their critics by playing the sex card. I can’t even say that “Lady, get off the phone, ’cause you can barely drive the car with both hands on the wheel let alone while yapping away.” Women and driving aren’t the best match in the world. If I point that out, I am not sexist, I am merely observant.

And finally, Israel. Please note that I didn’t say Jews. I have Jewish friends and I actually have great admiration for the religion itself. But, when entire apartment buildings are leveled by fighter-jet-fired missiles, because suspected terrorists are in those buildings, I am sorry: I can’t help but be outraged by it.

But I am not too worried, though. Firstly, I am still a white male, and this is still a white man’s world. Even though, I hate that I have to take being shamed thorough guilt, my “kind” still has the upper hand; and consciously or unconsciously, people will find a way to fight back. The unfortunate consequence is that the issues of racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination are being perpetuated. Blacks are still having a hard time getting the same jobs as whites in certain parts of the country, and women are still only getting 75 cents for every dollar a man earns for the same work. But now you know: the causes of discrimination are a two way street.

Posted 09 October 2007 † korneld § ‡ Comments (1) °

Why Hillary Is The Next President Of The United States

The race for the White House for 2008 is heating up. The primaries are around the corner, and people are picking their favorites. Democrats lost the chance to take the White House in ‘04, now it’s the Republicans turn for similar reasons.

As of the beginning of October of 2007, Senator Hillary Clinton is the front runner of the Democratic Party. Barack Obama is a distant second; and no one even comes close to the amount of money they raised so far, or the support they enjoy. Unless they do something really stupid, it’s all but guaranteed that we will have a Clinton/Obama ticket from the democrat’s side for ‘08. And why not? Hillary will have Bill Clinton to back her up, and after seven years of Bush in the White House, he looks an even better of a president than he did when he stepped down. If you liked Bill Clinton, this is the closest you are going to get to have him as the president again. If you are woman, it will be hard to justify to vote for anyone else and miss out on the chance to make history. If you are black, you are in the same shoes because of Obama. These factors unite liberals in a way that they didn’t even come close to in 2004.

Republicans played well on the fears of people of an other terrorist attack and for them George W. Bush was the perfect candidate. So, he was reelected. But, the table seemed to have turned. Republicans have been on the defensive for a long time now. Aside the from Iraq, which has proved to be an unmitigated disaster, there are other issues that weakened the party and divided it’s ranks and alienated its core supporters. Gay sex scandals have been in the fore front dealing blow after blow to the political party that is supposed to be big on values. On top of everything, the front runners for the Republican side are Rudy Giuliani, a pro-choice, for-gay-rights cross dresser; and the flip-flopping Mormon Mitt Romney. The Christian right even threatened to boycott the candidates by going for a third party candidate, that, in the opinion of many, would all but hand the presidency to Hillary Clinton on a sliver platter. It would create a similar situation to what happened to Al Gore in 2000 because of Ralph Nader.

Furthermore, a few of long time Republican law makers have announced that they were retiring, which usually makes it easier for the opposing candidate to then take. It may be possible that house will also go to the Democrats. With Hillary in the Oval Office, they will be free to do whatever they want just like Republicans did in the past seven years. While it is almost always in the best interest of the country to have a certain level of balance in the leadership so things can remain in check, an all democratic leadership may provide the change of pace that a lot of people have been waiting for.

Posted 08 October 2007 † korneld § ‡ Comments (0) °

Discrimination Against Men In The Military

Women have been battling discrimination for a long time. There was a time when a woman couldn’t even vote. Other forms of discrimination were greatly diminished in recent decades. The equal opportunity act was passed that made it unlawful to discriminate against a person because of her sex in the workplace. Sexual harassment is taken very seriously these days. The fact remains that women still get payed less for the same work as a man does, about 75 cents on the dollar. However, the aggressive push for equality between men and women has also resulted in going over board and essentially tipping the scale towards discriminating against men.

If you are a guy, you already have a pretty good idea what I mean. If a man voices an opinion that is critical of women, he is labelled a sexist regardless what the issue might be. The idea is dismissed regardless of merit, and the man in question might wear the stigma of bigot for a long time to come. If you are reading this and you are a feminist, you are probably getting worked up right now even tough you have no idea what I am about to say. If I had said this to you face-to-face, you would have cut me off a long time ago.

In 1994, a piece of legislation was passed that prohibited the military from sending women to the front lines. They are to be excluded from any mission whose main objective is direct combat with the enemy. National Public Radio (NPR) did a piece on this in October of 2007. No official explanation was given as to why the law came into existence in the first place. One person interviewed threw listeners a bone by giving an example where it could be potentially disastrous to have a woman in a combat unit. If a man were to get wounded on the battlefield and he had to be evacuated, a generally smaller, less strong female might not be up to the task. The difference in physical strength could prevent her from carrying out her duties, and may cause the life of a comrade.

The elephant in the room that no one seemed to notice was the inherent sexist nature of the law. Men and women are supposed to be equal. Equal rights should also mean equal responsibilities. That should also include dying on the battle field. Why? Because the man who essentially took the place of the woman in combat and got injured, maimed or killed is also somebody’s son, brother or husband. About 20% of today’s military is made up by female personnel. That means that one fifth of the dead should also be women. It’s only fair.

But what about the issue of the difference in strength mentioned earlier. All female units would address that problem.

But no one even brought this up in the NPR news piece, nor do I expect an investigative report on this anywhere else any time soon. I have only one word of advice to the ladies. Pushing for double standards, trying to have your cake and eat it too will only hinder your efforts to be treated equally. While in today’s world, men will not speak out against these things openly, it is still an “man’s world” and they will find a way to fight back. The only way women could ever hope to be treated equally is to accept equal responsibility while pushing for equal rights.

Posted 05 October 2007 † korneld § ‡ Comments (3) °

Racism: Discriminating Against Gypsies In Eastern Europe

I have recently spent almost three months in Eastern Europe, in Hungary to be exact. Even though, I have lived in the United States for fourteen years, I still consider Hungary my home in a lot of ways especially that my immediate family still lives there. There are, however, a number of aspects of the Eastern European way of thinking that have become alien to me, and which make me eternally grateful that America is my home now. The most important being the wide-spread notion of racism especially agings the gypsy.

Racism in Eastern Europe is not limited to Hungary or the gypsy. The same historical and cultural facts that are the source of discrimination are shared among Eastern European nations. In addition, proclaiming that you are a Jew or wearing a yamaka in public are still not considered “cool.” However, while the Jewish population can easily blend in with the rest of the populous, gypsies have the disadvantage of having a darker complexion in general.

The reasons for racism against the gypsy are mostly socioeconomic whose beginning can be traced back to the communist times. Under the communist doctrine, all people were supposed to be equal in all aspects especially when it came to their socioeconomic status. All people were entitled to a home, for instance, regardless their income. While not having a job was also against the law, the fact was that bottom of the social ladder required support from the state. The portion of the Hungarian population that is ethnically gypsy is about eight percent. They are some of the poorest of the poor and the vast majority depend on the welfare system to survive. While there may be many reasons why this is, two stand out. While education is free to all children in Hungary, since the end of the communist rule the laws that force people to actually send their children to school are not strictly enforced. Without education, the gypsy are limited to unskilled labor as a means of supporting themselves, which is not a huge leap forward from strictly living off welfare. It has become a way of life for most gypsies to abuse the Hungarian welfare system angering the tax paying part of the population. What makes matters worse is that the prison population is also mostly comprised of gypsies, which indicates an even higher burden on society as a whole.

White Hungarians have also became complacent in relating to the gypsy. First of all, an overwhelming majority (pretty much most) of the white Hungarian population refuses to think of the 800 thousand gypsies as Hungarians. It is not uncommon for even a casual conversation to drift towards the dissing of gypsies and blatant racism at some point. I tried several times to point out the wrongness of blaming an entire group for anything, because they share the same blood to very little effect. The idea was so new and unconventional to pretty much everybody that the initial reaction was usually a confused stare followed by anger.

It appears that the only gypsies that manage to lift themselves out of poverty and gain acceptance by the society at large are the musicians. Gypsies have a strong musical tradition that they are recognized for the world over. The only other means for a way out for a gypsy is being “lucky enough” to have lighter skin so his/her ethnicity can go unnoticed. As a matter of fact, the leader of the largest right wing party and a former prime minister of Hungary is gypsy. That didn’t even occurred to me until his father was interviewed on TV one time. Then it was obvious. The irony of the whole thing is that being the leader of the right also makes him the de facto leader of far right such as the skinheads. While I basically brought this up due to its absurdity, there is another point I’d like to make: if he had advertised himself as a gypsy from the beginning of his political carrier, he would have never had risen to the position of prime minister of the country due to racism.

Posted 24 September 2007 † korneld § ‡ Comments (0) °

Stupid Americans? No, Stupid People

People around the world are convinced that Americans are dumb, fat and lazy. Let me address stupidity and maybe some one else could take care of the rest. So, why the rest of the world (and let’s face it, we, too, have come to accept it to a certain degree) think that Americans are stupid just because we live in America. What makes them, if anything, so different from us.

First, let me tell you how I, personally, came to ponder the subject. I was born and raised in Hungary. I came to the United States straight out of high school to attend college. It’s been 14 years, and I am a permanent resident and will be a citizen soon. America has become my home: and despite its shortcomings as a nation, I have come to feel very deeply about it. The part of me that still belongs to Hungary and to Europe, I still cherish. There was a while when I felt that I somehow had to choose either one or the other after September 11. Then I realized that what I was doing, namely, being the son of a foreign land and having immigrated to America, has been done before. As a matter of fact, America is what it is today because of people like me. All of the sudden there was no conflict. I decided to use the best in being a Hungarian by birth and an American by choice to not only benefit me but both nations. Easier said than done.

Unfortunately, the conviction that there are only stupid Americans is very deeply rooted in pretty much all Europeans. Let’s face it people, the last several years of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy helped fuel it. (The strange thing is, though, that they cannot seem to stop being fascinated by America at the same time.) I personally could list a few things that upset me about the level of ignorance in our country. How about the fact that 20 percent of people couldn’t find America on the world map if their life depended on it. How about a third of high school students couldn’t tell you what century the Declaration Of Independence was signed in. What pisses me off the most these days is that about half of all Americans are still convinced that Iraq had something to do with 9/11 when it is a fact that Saddam Hussein had no connection with Al Quaida. Now that’s stupid.

The fact is, however, that people’s conviction in other parts of the world about American stupidity is not based on any facts whatsoever. What I listed in the previous paragraph, can be found on the Internet, and they are facts. No reasonable people would dispute them. They don’t seem to care, though. The vast majority I spoke to while on vacation in Hungary have never been in the United States, never spoke to anyone remotely American besides me and they don’t care about facts.

I was having dinner with a friend one night during my stay in Budapest; and he invited one of his colleges along. This guy’s brother spent a couple of weeks in Florida, and he came back with the message that, yes, Americans were indeed stupid. The examples he gave me were: (i) the food was tasteless; (ii) he got pulled over for speeding once and, while he was let off with a warning, the cop gave him a lecture on the dangers of driving tired; (iii) before a big storm hit town, the citizens of West Palm Beach, Florida were warned over the citywide intercom system. I couldn’t believe my ears! I mean I was expecting a list like what I gave you a little while ago only longer. Instead, he complained about people having a different taste on a totally different continent, he moaned about not getting a ticket and couldn’t believe that a town looked out for its residents. If that’s not stupid, I don’t know what is.

Stupid Americans? I don’t think so. It appears that stupidity knows no boundaries, my friends. To put it more accurately, it’s stupid people, not necessarily stupid Americans.

Posted 18 September 2007 † korneld § ‡ Comments (0) °

Is Barack Obama Not Black Enough?

Barack Obama is a junior Untied States Senator and a leading Democratic presidential hopeful only second to Hillary Clinton. His father a first generation American born in Kenya, and his mother is white American. A lot of people ask: is Barack a Muslim? The answer is that Barack Obama is not a Muslim, even though his father was raised as one. He is in fact a christian.

Barack (by the way that is the correct spelling of his name and not Barak Obama) was born in America, that’s how he can run for president. If you were born in another country, even if you lived in the U.S. all your life and are a naturalized citizen, you cannot legally become president of the United States (this is a law that will probably be thrown out by the Supreme Court, if it’s challenged by some one, because it’s unconstitutional).

So, Barack Obama is as black as they come, as American as they come, which makes him an African American. Right? The black community should be going crazy over him, since he is the first black person to have a serious shot if not at the presidency, but the vise presidency, right? Ladies and gentleman, if you said yes to either one of these questions, you might be surprised to learn that a lot of African Americans don’t agree with you.

These people’s concern is that Barak Obama is “only” a second generation American, and that while his father is a black African from Africa, Barack is not, what you might call, a “traditional” African American. I am guessing it’s because Barack has no connection with the slavery of Africans in the New World. I am a white guy, but I was born and raised in Europe and I am outraged by this attitude. I have lived almost half my life in the U.S. and I still get the quintessential comeback line of natural born idiots: “yeah, well, I was BORN in America.” It doesn’t seem to matter what my kind does, how long we have been living in the U.S. and that we have received our citizenship, we will always be second class citizens. I believe that Senator Barack Obama has fallen victim to the same rhetoric. However, Barak has to deal with an added twist. He can’t trace his roots back to the time of slavery, so is regarded by many as not a true African American. I think that’s absurd. First of all, if you are a black person living in America, and even if your ancestors were brought here on slave ships, you my friend have absolutely nothing to do with slavery yourself. I have met a sweet old black lady who told me that her great-great-grandmother was born in slavery. People! No one alive today has anything to do with it, unless you are pushing 150 years of age. This is absurd!

I think the criticism must be coming from the Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson types (I don’t actually know if they have any objections against Obama) who have been involved with black politics a lot longer than Senator Barack Obama, but never managed to amount to anything much. They are jealous that he is as popular as he is. The sad thing is that they use the little exposure they can get to negatively impact Barack’s bid for the presidency not caring if they hurt African Americans as a result. Pathetic.

I believe it is a great feat that an African American is doing this well. He is intelligent and well spoken. He has some good points. Barack Obama may not have a serious shot at becoming the next President of the United States, but he could make a good vice president.

Posted 06 September 2007 † korneld § ‡ Comments (0) °